SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Six American firms that emerged from a national innovation competition in the United States will travel to China later this year to vie for investment and more business opportunities in the world's second-largest economy, organizers said Wednesday.

The six companies from Seattle in the western U.S. state of Washington and the states of Colorado and California are part of the 100 U.S. tech firms that will go to China this fall to tap the Chinese market and seek investors, after they won the preliminary rounds of the nationwide innovation competition InnoSTARS organized by U.S.-China Innovation Alliance (UCIA). UCIA is a nonprofit organization with the mission to connect U.S. innovations with Chinese resources.

The companies were among the lucky finalists selected from about 300 candidates that emerged victoriously from preliminary contests, in which nearly 1,000 companies applied to compete, in seven U.S. innovation centers -- Chicago, Denver, Atlanta, Houston, San Francisco, Boston and Seattle.

Apart from the benefits of an all-paid trip to China, the companies will be invited to attend the 2018 "Talents Make Future" Overseas Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, which will be held in Guangzhou, southern China, in mid-December this year.

"We were impressed by the companies that you selected for this phase of the competition and see value in most. Thanks for including us in the process," said Darrel Smith, president and CEO of HydroStar USA, a firm dedicated to a new, low-cost, green technology that produces hydrogen gas from electrolysis by using a proprietary electrolyte called B9.

Ryan Vogel, executive director and founder of PureBlue that focuses on sustainable, economical management of sea, waste and groundwater resources, praised InnoSTARS as an entrepreneurial channel for U.S. technology companies to access Chinese players and markets.

"The eclectic mix of judges, presenting CEOs, and innovations had me on my toes and engaged for nine hours" in the preliminary contest, he said.

The InnoSTARS Seattle preliminary round was completed last Friday.